The morality of polarization

So Donald Trump bragged about being able to grab a woman “by the pussy”[1] (he dismisses this as “locker room talk”[2]), almost certainly had an affair with an adult film star,[3] and went on to nominate a judge for the Supreme Court who now stands credibly accused of attempted rape at a drunken party in his teen-aged years.[4]

We hear a lot less about Hillary Clinton’s slut-shaming defense of a rapist early in her legal career[5] or her slut-shaming of women who accused her husband of rape or sexual affairs.[6] And it should be disturbing that Clinton was not alone in defending her husband but was joined by other prominent women.[7]

Why condemn the one and not the other? This is only one example of what I’m seeing a lot of lately, what I call the morality of polarization, in which what “we” do is good and right, simply by virtue of the fact that “we” are doing it; and what “they” do is evil and wrong, simply by virtue of the fact that “they” are doing it. It’s an impediment to conversation: If your fundamental presumption is that the other side is irredeemably evil, you cannot engage with them to address any legitimate concerns they have. And they, starting with the same moralistic presumption about you, cannot engage with you to address your legitimate concerns.[8]

Instead, no matter who wins an election, the other side will feel tyrannized and often doubt the legitimacy of the results. Which is about where the U.S. is as a country today.

It’s also awfully hard to see how, as a country, we get out of this. In a marriage, we would most sensibly admit irreconcilable differences and get a divorce. As a country, our relationship seems beyond challenge, with secession out of the question.[9] Even if secession were conceivable, it’s difficult to imagine a division of territory that would make any sense: Here in California, for example, I call the Central Valley, which runs nearly the length of the state, from north of the Tehachapis all the way to Mount Shasta, California’s “Bible Belt.” Beyond that, secession movements have appeared in far northern California[10] and in southern California.[11] More locally, I occasionally see a pickup truck flying a Confederate flag from its bed around Santa Rosa.

But how do we accept that those we regard on a level with Satan are maybe not evil incarnate? That’s a hard place to move from, especially when we have committed to overlooking our own faults in a jihad against the other.